Monday, July 2, 2012

BDS in the Pews: a new report from NGO monitor

The anti-Israel forces have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to push Boycotts, Divestments and Sactions through the mainstream Christian churches.

An important new report BDS IN THE PEWS: European, US, and Canadian Government Funding Behind Anti-Israel Activism in Mainline Churches examines the source of this funding.

From the NGO Monitor Report:

"BDS strategists view the churches as a key target for promoting the BDS agenda: “religious institutions are seen in many communities as embodying important moral and ethical principles... Divestment campaigns that target companies such as Caterpillar have been initiated in a number of major Christian churches. Not only will successful divestment campaigns financially weaken the Occupation, but will raise both the public profile and legitimacy of the BDS campaign.”

In spite of the self righteous posturing of many BDS groups, some organizers are very clear about the goals of the BDS movement

"Dr. Norman Finkelstein, a BDS supporter, critiqued the BDS movement for being “dishonest” about their goals, saying, “We have to be honest, and I loathe the disingenuousness. They [BDS] don’t want Israel… And they think they’re very clever because they know the result of implementing all three [demands] is what? What’s the result? You know and I know, what’s the result? There’s no Israel.” (emphasis added)

Dr. As’ad AbuKhalil, a Northern California BDS campaigner, responded to Finkelstein in Al Akhbar: “Finkelstein rightly asks whether the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel. Here, I agree with him that it is. That should be stated as an unambiguous goal. There should not be any equivocation on the subject. Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel.” (emphasis added)

“BDS does mean the end of the Jewish state… Ending the occupation doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t mean upending the Jewish state itself.” (Ahmed Moor, leading U.S. BDS activist) (emphasis added)"

Church based BDS initiatives in 2012 include:

"In May, the United Methodist Church (U.S.) voted down an anti-Israel divestment resolution, but passed a resolution calling for selective boycotts of settlement products.

In July and August, anti-Israel resolutions supporting divestment and/or boycotts are to be debated and voted upon at the national policy gatherings of the Presbyterian Church-USA and the United Church of Canada.

The Episcopal Church (U.S.) in July will deliberate on a resolution that, according to an email action alert with the subject line “The Episcopalians Need Our Support Too!” circulated by Anna Baltzer of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, “is similar to the ground work that the Methodists and Presbyterians were laying several years ago as part of their long-term campaign” for divestment and boycotts.

The Church of England at its General Synod in July will deliberate and vote on whether to recognize the World Council of Church’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), which supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and a Palestinian “right of return”.

Who funds the church based delegitimization efforts?

"A number of European governments, plus the United States and Canada provide funds for these church-based efforts to delegitimize Israel. These tax-payer funds are disbursed as grants to church-based humhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifanitarian NGOs, which then transfer these funds to highly politicized pro-Palestinian NGOs, including Christian groups that promote BDS, the one-state solution and, in many cases, antisemitic supercessionist, or replacement, theologies within mainline churches worldwide."

To find out how your government might be financing the delegitimization efforts against Israel, read the full report at NGO Monitor